The present invention relates generally to data transfer systems and more particularly to a method and system for compressing a data stream.
In digital communications systems, data is transferred from a source to a destination through a channel. All channels are limited by their bandwidth, which represents the amount of data the channels can carry. To send files containing larger amounts of data (music files, video files, etc.) across bandwidth-limited channels, several conventional compression algorithms have been developed. Typically, these conventional compression algorithms replace sections of data in the data stream with compression codes. The compression codes identify earlier-transmitted sections of data that are identical to the replaced sections of data. Since the compression codes are smaller than the sections of data they replace, the total amount of data passed through the channel is reduced.
Most compression algorithms operate by identifying repeating patterns within the file to be compressed. Once the patterns are identified, they are replaced with a minimal set of characters when compressing the file. This proves to be efficient when the algorithms are applied to simple files such as text files because there are many repeating patterns within text files. However, when complicated files need to be compressed, like music and video files, these algorithms do not efficiently compress the files. Unlike text files, music and video files do not contain very many identifiable repeating patterns. One way conventional compression algorithms address this problem is by xe2x80x9ccreatingxe2x80x9d repeating patterns in the files by reducing the resolution of portions of the incoming music or video data stream. This ultimately leads to a loss of information which reduces the quality of the uncompressed file.
Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for compressing complicated data that overcomes the above-mentioned problems. The method and system should be simple, cost effective and capable of being easily adapted to current technology. The present invention addresses such a need.
A method and system for compressing data is disclosed. The method and system comprise receiving the data wherein the data comprises a plurality of portions, assigning a number to each of the plurality of portions of data, reconfiguring each of the assigned numbers and storing the reconfigured assigned numbers in a file.
According to the present invention, complicated data files are capable of being compressed in a complete and efficient manner.